8 Comments - DOWNSTATE - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 7:35 am: This Flood hiring deal will not go away.What a lot of people don’t know is before he was hired as a Regional Manager he was put in charge of the Washington County State Park.Completly at loss on what he was suppose to do he spent his afternoons sleeping in his chair in the office.Scott Flood has been both a joke and embarassment to the hard working conservation people. - Beowulf - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 7:58 am: Regarding the article on the ethanol plant near Springfield (Waverly, Illinois): I wish Blagojevich and our legislatures were as pro-active regarding the alternative energy efforts in our state of Illinois as our sister states in the Midwest have been. Iowa and Nebraska have been knocking down the roadblocks that have been holding up the development of new sources of alternative energy such as ethanol, windpower, nuclear power, and solar power. If Blago wanted to hit a home run with this issue, he would initiate a mandate that all state owned vehicles purchased from this point on will be hybrid vehicles if at all possible. The fuel savings to the state budget would be significant. It would also show that Illinois is going to do something other than just give “lip service” to reducing our dependence on foreign oil supplies. I read today where Bank of America is offering a $3,000 check to any of their employees that buys a hybrid vehicle. This is an excellent example of an entity that puts their money where their mouth is. I applaud the Bank of America for this new policy. More important than reducing our trade deficit and reliance on foreign oil, this alternative energy will allow us to get our troops out of these other countries in the Mideast where our addiction to their oil got us involved in their internal politics in the first place. Not only will we save money by NOT buying their oil, we will save money by not having a costly war ongoing in these other Mideast countries, and we will (most importantly)) save the lives of our sons and daughters in the armed services. - Reddbyrd - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 8:30 am: Rich: Did you miss Bernie’s little update on Blinky Jim and his online gambling bonanza? Looks like about 800K for the boy with a few horses and choice U of I gig from the fine folks at YouBet. Could he share some coin with the AccordiOnGal’s dying campaign? - Truthful James - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 9:08 am: Redd – Appreciate your comment, but I guess I am not cleared to know the real names of the parties involved. - Tessa - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 4:08 pm: What I truly enjoy right now is that with the many articles flowing about Blagojevich and possible ethical violations, every state employee has to take the 2006 Ethics training on computer. This year the focus is on political ethics and possible violations, because we know this is an election year. *Blech* Me thinks the people who come up with this crap need to pay more attention to it. - Anonymous - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 4:36 pm: Wouldn’t Ray Coleman be considered a whistleblower who blew the whistle on political cronyism and nepotism in the Illinois Democratic Party and was retaliated against for speaking out on matters of public concern? - The George Ryan Trial - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 4:39 pm: With all of the juror misconduct, not withstanding guilt or innocence, George Ryan should be granted a mistrial. The jury deliberation tainted his constitutional right to a fair trial free from outside influences. What the feds should do is start a new trial including the improprieties in the current governor’s office and call it Operation……… - Ms. Manners - Thursday, Jun 8, 06 @ 5:39 pm: Illinois politics is a serious issue to many of us. Name calling and belittling of those involved in political life does nothing to further serious discussion of issues. It just tends to continue the excessive bitterness and partisanship that is all to evident in politics today, and further alienate many citizens. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.